Finally home.

Home, after three rocky October days and two embarrassing breakdowns and deep blue doubts.

At home, where Jackie Robinson still steals at home and Sandy Koufax still throws shutouts and Kirk Gibson still pumps his fist.

Home, to the World Series.

On a riveting Sunday night at Dodger Stadium, the Dodgers silenced the critics, embraced their birthright and returned to their personal promised land with a 10-5 victory over the New York Mets that gave them a four-games-to-two victory in the competition. National League Championship Series.

After three consecutive October days of classic falls, the Dodgers have returned to the Fall Classic for the fourth time in eight seasons, the 13th time in Los Angeles history and the 22nd time overall.

And guess who’s waiting there?

For the love of Larsen, here come the New York Yankees!

Yes, those damn Yankees, their oldest rivals from October, their nastiest playoff foe, the pinstripe pains that have haunted the Dodger franchise for more than a century.

Starting Friday at Dodger Stadium, baseball’s two most storied teams will meet for the twelfth time in a World Series, the most productive Series game in baseball history, even though they haven’t shared that stage in 43 years.

The Yankees have won eight of their previous 11 meetings in games that featured some of the biggest moments in World Series history. From Robinson’s steal of home turf to Larsen’s perfect game and Reggie Jackson’s three home runs, the next two weeks will bring back the ghosts of greatness past.

For the Yankees, players such as Joe DiMaggio, Yogi Berra and Mickey Mantle have been replaced by Aaron Judge, Juan Soto and Giancarlo Stanton.

For the Dodgers, the legacy of 3-Dog and Penguin and Big D continues through MVP, Moookie and Fred-die.

The current Yankees have more star power, but the Dodgers are more talented and will certainly be favored to win the series, which sounds good. They should win it. Anything less would be upsetting. Anything less would be a failure.

It would be their eighth franchise championship and seventh title in Los Angeles, but more compellingly, it would be their first title with fans in the stands since 1988. Their only World Series win since then came in the Covid-shortened 2020 season, when the playoffs took place largely in a bubble in Texas and there was no planned public celebration.

Thirty-six years is a long time to wait for a parade. These Dodgers are good enough to plan for one for now.

They closed out the Mets Sunday thanks to a home run and four RBIs from NLCS MVP Tommy Edman, a two-run homer from struggling catcher Will Smith, and the usual array of effective relievers. They did it without the injured Freddie Freeman and Miguel Rojas, they did it with Ohtani and Betts playing only supporting roles, they did it the way they’ve done it all season, with everyone involved.

This team is more complete and competitive than any other team in Manager Dave Roberts’ nine seasons. This team is deeper than the 2020 title-winning Dodgers, more gifted than those 1988 underdog champions, and simply better than everyone but the 1955 Hall-of-Famer champions and Koufax’s 1965 squad.

The Dodgers’ Anthony Banda responds after striking out Jeff McNeil with the bases loaded to end the third inning.

(Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

Roberts acknowledged that this was his best team, which is saying something considering he has the best winning percentage in management history and has led teams to the Series four times in his nine years.

“I think when you talk about collective at-bats and pitching and all that stuff, yeah, it’s hard to remember a team that’s playing better team baseball than we’re playing right now, yeah,” he said.

Roberts has now tied Tommy Lasorda for those four pennants, trailing only Walter Alston, who went to seven World Series. Roberts has become the new Lasorda, even if, when asked about his place in the Dodger managerial hierarchy, he refused to acknowledge it.

“I don’t want to do that, I’ll start to get nervous,” he said. “I just want to try to do my job and make sure our players are winning baseball games and winning baseball games for the Dodgers, that’s all.”

They’ve won a lot this season, and they should. They have the most ownership in baseball, the best executive in baseball, the best player in baseball, arguably the best manager in baseball, and the best fans in baseball.

They should be in the World Series. They should be there every year.

But what makes this year so special is how they got here.

Yes, they spent more than $1 billion on offseason acquisitions, including Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Teoscar Hernández and Tyler Glasnow. Yes, they were heavy favorites to advance to the World Series even before the first pitch.

But then gambling scandals happened, position changes happened, injuries happened, and the summer was almost derailed before the smarts of baseball boss Andrew Friedman and Roberts’ leadership saved them from themselves.

“It’s gone as we expected in terms of where we are today,” Roberts said. “How we got there is absolutely not how we envisioned it.”

Ohtani was distracted when his longtime interpreter Ippei Mizuhara admitted to stealing more than $16 million from the slugger to fund his gambling addiction.

Mookie Betts was distracted when the Dodgers started the season by moving him to an unknown shortstop.

The entire team was distracted when they lost eight starting pitchers to injuries.

At several points during the summer the team seemed to be in trouble, but they never fell out of first place and everyone figured it out.

Ohtani pushed to capture the National League MVP award by becoming the first player in history to have at least 50 home runs and 50 stolen bases in the same season.

Betts never complained about the position change, a role model for the veteran clubhouse, and he was eventually moved back to right field, where he has flourished.

In adapting to all those pitching injuries, the Dodgers developed a versatile and all-encompassing bullpen that has been the star of the postseason.

After watching his creation endure several months of hardship, Friedman gave them a final kick by acquiring three key pieces in the trade deadline moves that have taken them deep into October.

Have you ever wondered what this team would look like without Jack Flaherty, Tommy Edman and Michael Kopech? Don’t. It’s not pretty.

“It’s a credit to the organization and the resilience we have, it’s really cool,” Roberts said of the season. “Ultimately, we are in the same place we had hoped.”

And what a place indeed.

The World Series is here. The New York Yankees are on deck. History awaits.